This is a fantastic little pulp tale spun with style and flair by the great Cornel Woolrich in the mid-1930s.

Mystery in Room 913 is a near perfect little pulp mystery/suspense story. Woolrich wrote it lean, telling a story, as all the truly great pulp writers did. Yet despite the brevity of the tale, which is in the seventy-page ballpark, you get a clear impression of the characters from the moment you meet them, an atmosphere for the setting, and a deep curiosity for what’s behind the mystery of room 913 which will keep you turning pages.

The main character is the hotel detective, Striker, who is first on the scene when Room 913 claims its initial victim. A brief, unsigned note allows the brash and none too eager city detective to write it off as suicide, but Striker believes the man’s fall from 913 was murder. A year later, a second man suffers the same fate, through the same window, and again a brief, unsigned note allows the very same city detective to write it off as a suicide. Striker knows better, as do others in the hotel, who have begun to suspect something out of the ordinary is going on in room 913.

Why can you feel a depression in 913? Why does a dog who never whines do so only moments before one of the victims plunges to his death? What about the devil-mask Striker discovers in a tenant’s room? What to make of the smell of sandalwood? And what to make of the lightning someone claims to have seen at the exact same moment one of the men met his fate? The victims are always single check-ins, never a couple. Striker, frustrated that the copper won’t look into it any further, knows it is only a matter of time before room 913 strikes again.

Some investigation, and a ruse is perpetrated by Striker in order to prevent another death, but the best laid plans don’t always work. Striker’s obsession to know the truth about room 913 leads to an exciting climax and, some would say, fantastically implausible solution.

Both written and set during the 1930s, it has the feel of watching a 1930s black and white mystery; a nifty little “B” perhaps, tightly written and quickly paced so not an inch of celluloid is wasted. Economically written by Woolrich, yet not without atmosphere, the solution is fun and suspenseful. It does seem wildly implausible, yet when you really consider it, it is really no more implausible than the rather elaborate solutions to many great mysteries — Christie’s Death in Mesopotamia, for example.

Woolrich wrote a barrel full of great short stories and novels. Most famous were his noir stories where the protagonist often fought a battle with fate, often losing, but sometimes winning. Many of his works became films in the 1940s — Black Angel, Phantom Lady. Hitchcock’s Rear Window in the 1950s is based on Woolrich’s It Had to Be Murder, and of course there is Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black.

This one goes a bit further back, however, when Woolrich was writing mystery and romance. This one is a bit more pulpy, and much more a mystery story than a noir tale. Great stuff if you enjoy a lean and entertaining style of writing so endemic of pulp. If you’re a fan of Woolrich, a must-read novelette to get a glimpse at his early work. ( )